Still reading the news? Okay, Boomer.
New research shows that Gen Zers trying to stay informed prefer to have others digest the daily headlines first — and then not only deliver the highlights, but help them figure out what to think, too.
A study conducted by Google shows younger newshounds are relying on social media posts from their favorite influencers — and the opinions of the masses in the comment sections — versus the usual range of traditional sources, Business Insider reported.
The findings were announced on the heels of several studies showing that Gen Z — along with an increasing number of older Americans — are turning to TikTok as their top source for news.
Researchers at Jigsaw, a Google subsidiary that focuses on online politics and polarization, spent years studying how Gen Zers consume and engage with news media.
The study found that although most of Gen Z knows how to fact-check information and determine fake news from the real thing, they don’t actually do it themselves.
They believe internet sleuths will out any fake news for them. They also don’t trust news pages with ads, paywalls, or pop-ups asking for donations or subscriptions.
Most young adults shared that they typically only read the headline before scrolling down to the comments section to see what people took away from the article and how people are reacting — but if they have to scroll for too long, they’ll just skip it.
Instead of working to determine whether they trust a source, or process what they should take away from the news, most Gen Zers allow influencers to digest the information and explain it to them.
“Gen Zers will have a favorite influencer or set of influencers who they essentially outsource their trust to, and then they’re incredibly loyal to everything that influencer is saying,” Beth Goldberg, Jigsaw’s head of research, told Business Insider.
But it’s not that Gen Z is lazy, they want to hear multiple points of view and first-person experiences to gauge the cultural reaction to things — and avoid being canceled.
“Cancel culture came to be a thing as they were growing up. They were trained and attend to how to perform, and not perform, to avoid that,” Goldberg noted.
But there are times when Gen Z prefers to find things out for themselves.
When it comes to diet and wellness information, young adults would rather be human test subjects than rely on data surveying wide populations or first-hand experiences from one person.
Despite the seemingly constant overload of information that Gen Z is bombarded with online, the majority of the generation of digital natives said they spend most of their time online “timepassing” — mindlessly scrolling through light-hearted content for entertainment.
A growing number are even ditching social media and smartphones altogether.
